Category: Library Innovation

MmIT hosted their annual webinar on what tools and technologies should librarians and information professionals know about in 2019. We smashed all MmIT webinar records with over 230 professionals attending over the course of the 50 minute session.

The webinar panel was chaired by Andy Tattersall who was joined by three experts to look at tools and technologies new and old as well as answer questions for the event which had the hashtag #AskMmIT19

The Panelists were Christina Harbour – Anglia Ruskin University @tinalpool Claire Beecroft – University Teacher at the University of Sheffield @beakybeecroft Luke Burton – Digital Development Manager at Newcastle City Council @biblioluke and Andy Tattersall – Information Specialist at the University of Sheffield @Andy_Tattersall

MmIT Chair Alison McNab @AlisonMcNab has created a Wakelet of the event which you can view here

The Call for Speakers for Internet Librarian International#ILI2019 has opened. Share your library experiences with hundreds of global colleagues this October in London.

Every year hundreds of library and information professionals – and others – come together at ILI to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience. The focus is on real-world innovations, whether large or small. The organisers are looking for case studies, great stories, personal experiences and lessons learned from the ideas, strategies and practical implementations you’ve put in place.

There is the line that you can never have too much of good thing and these days there are so many good things that librarians and information professionals can employ in their working environment. The great thing is that since we emerged from the world of Web 1.0 to 2.0 that a lot of these newer tools are free and actually quite useful. The flipside is that a lot aren’t that good or just can’t be applied in a library setting, regardless of how hard you try and knock a square peg into a round hole, it won’t go (unless the square peg is smaller of course).

Libraries are no different from any kind of organisation, they have to use formally licensed software for the day to day running of their service. Even though this does not always mean the leanest or most dynamic of packages serving your library, but it does mean you will get a good level of service support and that is essential. The smaller, more niche tools have a part to play in this technology ecosystem – just like the microbes and bugs on Planet Earth – if we remove them the whole system would collapse. The larger technology companies often need the smaller companies to keep the environment from becoming stale and predictable. They also can eat them up from time to time, just like our bugs and other real world creatures. Take for example how – at the time independent company – Mendeley changed reference management dramatically for the better. The smaller technology companies are less likely to get bogged down by bloated platforms run by large companies who focus first on foremost in delivering a stable product for their users. Like I say, the stability of large platforms is essential, the flexibility and dynamic nature of smaller technologies is often where the real action is at.

The last ten years has seen a tremendous growth in new technologies that can be applied in a library setting. The financial cost of these tools, such as Canva, Twitter, Adobe Spark and Eventbrite can be free. Yet with freedom can come a cost as problems can start to float to the surface, although not all of these problems are that worrisome. The old adage ‘If you are not paying for the product – you are the product’ certainly rings true with how some technologies will give you a free ride if you give them your data in return. There are also issues around what do you do when you become hooked into a useful platform, but want more from the premium add ons and the person holding the purse strings says no. How do you know whether the tool you are using will be here tomorrow – remember PageFlakes, Storify, Readability, Google Reader and Silk anyone?

Another question for the typical library or information professional is which tools are best and how can they be applied and which will work on their system – take for example a librarian in an NHS setting. The final and most crucial issue is around the investment of time used to master new tools and that can be problematic depending on the learning curve, but if you know how to use Microsoft Word you’ll probably master most lightweight tools in very little time. The sheer number of tools that can be used in the library sector is overwhelming, regardless of whether you are a public, NHS, business or academic librarian. One tool may solve a host of problems for one librarian but be as useful as a chocolate teapot for another. It is all about application and one of the greatest things to see in technology uptake in the library is how one person can use a tool and then another take that same tool and apply it in a totally unexpected way just as successfully. This is the wonderful thing about these technologies, whether it is Menitmeter for polling, Pocket for curating or Piktochart for posters, you you use it may be totally different from how someone else does.

The British Library is leading a scoping project establishing the demand and possible shape of a single digital presence for UK public libraries. Consultation workshops for the project are taking place in London (2 July) and Bath (10 July) for interested parties.

Do get in touch with the organisers if you and your organisation would like to take part. Responses should be sent to singledigitalpresence @ bl.uk indicating which session you would like to attend.

Once again MmIT will be supporting the @IntLibIntl #ILI18 Conference, to be held at London Olympia on 16-17 October. ILI is marking its 20th birthday in 2018 by celebrating innovative libraries and innovative information professionals The Call for Speakers is open until Friday 13 April. We’re particularly looking forward to potential sessions on tech tools and trends, users and user experience, strategising the future, search tools and techniques, and collections and content. See you there?

Join MmIT for an afternoon seminar on Monday 19 March to explore The wisdom of the crowd? Crowdsourcing for information professionals. Crowdsourcing is the increasingly common practice of engaging a ‘crowd’ or group to work toward a common goal – this may be solving a problem, creating a resource or artefact, or developing a service. How can library and information professionals utilise this in their professional practice? Our afternoon seminar includes a case study from the British Library, two ways information professionals can contribute to the accuracy of Wikipedia, and a mini-workshop to identify ways that delegates can utilise “the wisdom of the crowd” in their own workplace.

Our hashtag will be #mmitcrowds

Programme outline:

Welcome and introduction (Alison McNab, University of Huddersfield) (1pm)

The phenomenon of crowdsourcing (Caroline Pringle, Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Media, University of Huddersfield)